Being a respected regional musician has its good points and its not so good points. Nils Petter Molvaer, who was born in 1960 and raised on an island off the northwest coast of Norway, eventually made his way to Oslo in the early '80s and became the most acclaimed trumpeter in the city's burgeoning jazz community, but his local success sealed him off from the larger world. On the other hand, untainted by constant professional exposure to influences that might have turned his head, he immersed himself in his first love, electric Miles Davis, simmering in the expressionistic juices of the master's last great experimental phase.

It wasn't until 1997 that Molvaer made his solo mark outside of Scandinavia. In that year he released "Khmer" on ECM, the German jazz label that refuses to stick to jazz, having released all of Keith Jarrett's classical recordings, not to mention the work of Estonian composer Arvo Part.

"Khmer" also moved away from jazz, but in the opposite direction, toward Miles' vision of rock and then beyond, into something resembling drum 'n' bass. In any case, fusion it ain't. Molvaer's playing, in turns mournful and manic, avoids overt structure and chord-based improvisation for a sound that mimics nature in all its unpredictability and yet holds its own as music. The album was such a startling success that it immediately spawned a double-disc set that included the original album and a companion CD of remixes by people like The Herbaliser and Rockers Hi-Fi.

His second album, "Solid Ether," goes even further. The trumpet is more lyrical, the percussion more assertive and daring. Molvaer, who in addition to trumpet also plays bass and guitar, and who programs his own electronics, has developed a unique multilayered ambience that alternates between skittery chaos and a still, limpid beauty. There's even some poetry on the record that puts it all into a verbal context. Another remix album followed, but what you'll get at these upcoming shows, which will feature two drummers and a turntablist, is the pure, unadulterated thing: exciting, thought-provoking, infectious.